I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but Quentin Tarantino, in addition to being a famous and acclaimed film director… well, he’s also a bit of an oddball. He recently unveiled his list of his 10 favorite films of 2013 so far, and it’s the kind of list that would make you wonder if he’s screwing with us even if it didn’t include The Lone Ranger, which it does.

So far, the only overlap with my list would be Gravity, and possibly This is the End (which would still take a backseat to the similarly-titled-but-superior The World’s End). The rest of the choices range from predictable to mildly confusing to straight-up bizarre. I won’t pile on to The Lone Ranger any more than the world already has, but Kick-Ass 2? For me that was down with The Bling Ring, Jobs, and Hangover III for the worst of the year, in the nigh-unwatchable category (which I blame more on the concept than on anything the creative team did with it). I love QT, but most of this list makes about as much sense to me as a foot fetish. Like, really? You want to jerk off to that? You know there’s a perfectly good vagina three feet above it, right?

Holy Forshak, the only movie released in 2013 The Mighty Feklahr has seen is “Oz The Great and Powerful”, and it was essentially ok. The only movie He saw in a theater was a Rifftrax Live of “Starship Troopers” (fucking amazing). The Mighty One wonders if He should talk a little more to His psychiatrist about social anxiety disorder?

(I would go to ‘Machete Kills’, but the only two friends I have that would actually go to it with me have either or both controlling wives and children. I can’t even get my little sister to go any more because she is working AND trying to finish her nursing thing at the community college. There’s this guy that might go, but I haven’t figured out for sure if he is gay yet, and I wouldn’t want to lead him on and hurt his feelings. Why does life and making friends have to be so complicated? Can some of you move to Iowa City? We have corn, soybeans, and are starting to crank out some killer fucking bourbon whiskey [for real!].)

I’m fine with QT being on that Armond White blow. At least the conversations he has with himself are worth overhearing whereas the Pete Hammond ecstasy he takes with his cheerios just makes him shout “THESE ARE THE BEST SPAGHETTIOS I’VE EVER FUCKING TASTED” over and over for two hours.

Tarantino is a genius who’s career is on the wane. It’s been a gradual decline since Pulp Fiction that’s gotten to the point where his movies have effectively become caricatures of what people loved about his earliest films. I don’t put any stock in his opinion re: this particular list.

Man, Basterds can be your jam all fucking day long, but that doesn’t chance the fact that Tarantino’s films having been going up their own asses since Kill Bill. Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching his movies. I enjoyed Basterds. I enjoyed Django. But were they ‘great’ films? I don’t think so. Tarantino has devolved as a director at this point. I mean, people have always slammed him for taking great scenes or bits from other films and incorporating them in to his own movies, and while I know he does this, I do not care because Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and, yes, even Jackie Brown, are brilliant because they combined amazing acting, great script-writing and a heavy focus on the interaction between characters that wasn’t really being done by anyone else, or at least being done in the same way Tarantino was doing it (in North America, at least). But now? Every movie features absurdly over-the-top acting AND absurdly over-the-top violence. It’s like he had a coke-epiphany at some point where he said “Shit, love the shit out of revenge flicks with goofy ultra-violence, so that’s what I’m gonna do from now on.” And, like, I said, I can watch that and enjoy it. But I can’t hold Tarantino’s last few movies up against the greatest movies of the last 10 years and legitimately claim his rank up there.

Yeah, except for Lone Ranger and Kick Ass 2 I could see most of these movies making random top ten lists, I think the lists is so off-setting though because it touches a whole lot of genres. For exampleThe Conjuring would only be on a critic’s list if he was a known horror enthusiast, but then he probably wouldn’t have Blue Jasmine. The lists just proves that QT is all over the place in how he thinks.

I agree with This is the End being good, but anyone who needs to throw out critic statistics or box office totals to prove their point, shouldn’t be discussing film. That’s like saying a band’s only quality if they have multiple grammys.

But when someone pulls the “you disagree with me so your tastes are ‘retarded'” card then it’s valid, because they’re essentially outing themselves as an insufferable contrarian just for contrarian’s sake.

No, I’m disagreeing with you, dissident, because your opinions on film are the worst kind of popular tripe*. A bunch of popular actors make an indie-type film on a relatively low budget and you love it because they talk about weed and masturbation jokes sprinkled across an incredibly weak plot. On the other end of the spectrum is The World’s End, where the writing is substantially better, the directing is about eleventy-chillion times better and there is actually an awesome plot. But you wouldn’t get any of that, because you’re more inclined to just read Vince’s reviews and nod your head. Thinking? That’s for other people, amirite?!

*Yes, you’re effectively Venkman, and I’ve just thrown you off campus for being a fraud.

“..but Kick Ass 2? For me that was down with The Bling Ring, Jobs, and Hangover III for the worst of the year, in the nigh-unwatchable category (which I blame more on the concept than on anything the creative team did with it.”

Wait, I’m completely lost on what you’re saying here. Are you seriously suggesting that the very concept of Kick Ass 2 was terrible, as opposed to what was put on screen? Because that’s completely fucking retarded. The first Kick Ass was actually a great movie, and had the hook for a sequel. What ruined Kick Ass 2 was *entirely* the creative process – the characters were interesting, and the actors poured their hearts into it, and damn near almost managed to pull off an entertaining movie in spite of the script and direction.

10.07.13 at 10:24 pm

Vince Mancini

Right, I meant more the actors tried, and it was pretty, but the part where they sucked all the satire out of the original (which I loved) made it terrible. It’s like they all tried hard to make a movie without any concept of why they should be making it. So it was campy and confusing instead satirical or insightful, like the first.

Just a head’s up Larry, KA2 is a movie you seriously have to turn your brain off to enjoy. It’s probably the bare-bottom of that standard; anything below it, and you’re justified in neck-punching the guy who tells you “oh, it’s not Shakespeare, it’s just a dumb movie.”

It’s got its moments, and mostly if you just focus on the performances, especially of Carrey and Moretz, it’s entertaining enough.

I finally got around to watching the Lone Ranger the other day and, while it’s not the worst movie of all time (as a lot of people want to make it seem), I would give it, like, a 5 or 6 out of 10. There is a whole bunch of retardation in there. The film is way too long, and they effectively could have dropped the girl + kid and cut the movie down but 40 minutes but I can imagine Disney probably said, nope, gotta have a family in there somewhere…we’re fucking Disney for fuck sake!!!